Le Noirmont, Mountain summit in canton Vaud, Switzerland
Le Noirmont is a summit of the Jura range in the Swiss canton of Vaud, reaching 1,567 metres. It lies entirely in Switzerland, within the municipality of Arzier-Le Muids, while the French border runs along the base of its north-western slopes. The mountain is built mainly of Malm and Cretaceous limestones, with a small anticline oriented south-south-west.
From 1536, after Bern conquered the Pays de Vaud, the border between the Swiss Confederation and Franche-Comté in the Les Rousses area remained unclear. A 1648 treaty placed the frontier on the crest of Le Noirmont, and it stayed there after France took Franche-Comté. In 1862 a treaty settling the Vallée des Dappes dispute gave Switzerland a forest on the mountain's north-western slope.
The name Noirmont does not refer to a black summit but to the dark appearance of its wooded slopes; in local Swiss Romand patois, noir and its derivatives often designate wooded peaks. The summit lies within the commune of Arzier-Le Muids, and the Carroz hut, a mountain refuge owned by the Swiss Alpine Club, stands southeast of it.
Several hiking trails lead to the summit from La Cure and Les Rousses with clear markings and information boards along the way. Routes are well-signposted, allowing visitors to choose different approaches to reach the peak.
Le Noirmont sits on the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean: streams on its southeast slope feed the Promenthouse and the Asse toward Lake Geneva, while those on the northwest slope drain into Lac des Rousses and the Orbe, a tributary of the Aar.
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